Lexication behind the scenes
The work of the legal commission could be seen as a part of language planning in the 17th and 18th century, and the aim of this project is to investigate in what way the commission worked in order to establish a suitable vocabulary for the Code of Law 1734, and in what way their work can be seen to interact with contemporary lexicography. The growth of Swedish lexicography is thoroughly described in the Lexicographic Tradition in Sweden project (Hannesdóttir & Ralph 1987). One of the important results of the project is that 18th century dictionaries played a major role in the elaboration of standardized Swedish grammar. The question is whether they also played an important role in the setting of a Swedish vocabulary?
Hopefully the results of the project will give us some more evidence as to the mechanisms behind language planning in the 18th century; it may also tell us more about the function and quality of bilingual dictionaries in regard to a language planning process.
2011-2016
The overall aim of this project is to gain a better understanding of the standardization of the vocabulary in the early 1700s. By examining the protocols of the Law Committee, appointed by the king in 1686, you can take part in direct discussions of linguistic nature, and get an understanding of the Law Committee's thoughts about language planning at the time. By putting their discussions in relation to modern theories of language standardization you get a better understanding of the conditions of lexical establishment during the 17th century.
The project has focussed more on legal language than was intended from the start. The main reason for this decision is that the access of material is comparatively good for legal texts. There is an unbroken tradition of written legal texts in Sweden since medieval times, and there is much material available for comparisons, both historically and synchronously. The other argument is that legal language makes an interesting starting point for studies on lexical establishment since many relevant aspects can be incorporated, such as the relationship between Latin and Swedish and the distinction between general vocabulary and terminology. Legal language requires specific formulations that are legally valid. At the same time the vocabulary must be comprehensible to the reader, regardless of their educational and professional background, which probably was a challenge to the Law Committee.
Thus, the aims of the project has not changed significantly since the application was granted, but the range of empirical studies has mainly been focussed on material related to legal vocabulary in Swedish and Latin.
The project's three main findings
The first result is that the dictionaries examined seem to be reliable for lexical studies. Maybe that seems like an obvious result, since older dictionaries have been used for many years and in several contexts as sources for lexical studies. For example, the well-known Swedish historical dictionary, SAOB, is a frequent user of old dictionaries when looking for linguistic evidence for their articles. There are, however, not so very many empirical studies that actually compare the vocabulary of authentic texts with contemporary dictionaries. In my empirical studies I have been able to confirm that there is a great convergence between contemporary dictionaries and legal texts, which I take as evidence that older dictionaries are trustworthy for lexicological studies of older Swedish.
The studies carried out also show that the proposed replacement of words that the Law Committee suggest in their protocols also are found in contemporary and slightly later dictionaries. This applies to both legal words in Swedish and more general words. This shows that that the words and expressions discussed by the Law Committee are somehow perceived as incorrect or obsolete also by other linguistic authorities, such as lexicographers, the proof of which is found in the lexicographical treatment of the discussed words. This is an important finding in relation to the overall aim of the project -trying to distinguish lexical aspects of language standardization.
The second result that I want to highlight is the distinction that can be observed between legal terms and general vocabulary. The theoretical basis for distinguishing terminology from common language was not recognized in the same way during the 1700s as it is today. The understanding of professionals versus laymen were quite different, which, for example, is crucial for the definition of language for specific purposes in relation to common language. Many legal texts, such as law books and court records, were intended for professional practitioners as well as laymen, and had to be understood by both groups. Also, the fact that legal language in itself is metaphysical (that laws are valid only on the basis of linguistic formulations and definitions) makes special-purpose use versus general senses particularly delicate in this type of text. In the surveys that compare Latin and Swedish legal words in different types of texts, you could notice a tendency of differentiated use of Latin terminology in relation to different types of text. This demonstrates an awareness of the function of the text and the adaptation of the vocabulary in an interesting way. (These findings are now the basis for further studies of the emergence of various types of non-fiction, especially the origins of the legal handbook in Swedish. See also the next section.)
The third result shows that the law committee, as well as lexicographers at the time, try to make lexical improvements in accordance with the usage of the words at the time. This clearly responds to the overarching research question of the functional norm as the basis of linguistic standardization in the early 1700s. The functional norm has been a beacon for Swedish language planning since the early 1900th century, and the development of this approach has been studied in depth, not least by Ulf Teleman. In my studies it could be noticed that the functional norm to some extent also applies to the lexical side of language development as early as around 1700.
New research questions generated by the project
There is above all one aspect which has given rise to further studies and research issues, and this aspect is based on observations of how Swedish and Latin legal terms correlate with different types of text. Methodologically this finding is interesting in that it provides a new aspect on how to combine lexical research and textual research. Maybe observations concerning the choice of words in different types of text could be an additional instrument in research on the emergence of non-fiction well before 1750, especially in the handbook genre that has been viable since the 1500s in Sweden, with Peder Månsson.
The connection between legal lexical development and development of legal text genres is also interesting from a more technological point of view. With more knowledge about the relationship between lexical organisation and text genres, there would be more opportunities to combine text research with methods from natural language processing, especially corpus linguistics. A more basic knowledge about how the relationship between language and text genre looks historically could improve methods of exploring, for example, semantic change in a historical perspective for Swedish.
The project's international spreading
I have participated in two conferences, one Nordic and one international, and published one more article in a Nordic journal. (See publication list)
In August 2013, I participated in a Nordic conference on lexicography with a lecture and a written article in the conference proceedings: Konferanse om leksikografi i Norden. Oslo 13-16 august 2013.
In February 2015, a colleague of mine (Associate Professor Hans Landqvist) and myself presented a survey on the use of Latin words of a legal handbook from 1674 at an international conference in Vasa, Finland. The conference was called Rajojen dynamiikkaa, border dynamics, Borders during the negotiation, Grenzen und ihre dynamics. VAKKI-symposiumi XXXV 12.-13.2.2015. The survey has been published in the conference volume: Rajojen dynamiikkaa, border dynamics, Borders during the negotiation, Grenzen und ihre dynamics. VAKKI-symposiumi XXXV 12.-13.2.2015.
Informative research efforts outside the scientific community
I have not presented any popularisations of this project.
The project's two main publications and a discussion of these
1. The conference article Från dilation till uppskov. Var ordböcker viktiga i etableringen av ett juridiskt ordförråd? Nordiske studier i leksikografi 12. Rapport fra Konferanse om leksikografi i Norden. Oslo 13-16 august 2013. S. 385-401
In this article I examine how the lexicographical structure of articles in eight different dictionaries correlate with some legal words of Latin origin, as regards their character of being terms or common words.
The results show a correlation between lexicographical structure of the words and how they are perceived as terms. These results are interesting from a historical lexicographical point of view as well as for research on the establishment of legal terminology.
2. The conference article Ett tidigt försök att etablera en svensk juridisk vokabulär? Lexikaliska och fackspråkliga perspektiv på en juridisk handbok från 1674. VAKKI Publications 4. Vaasa s. 199-208 (together with Hans Landqvist).
In the article we examine the relationship between legal terminology in Swedish and Latin in the first legal handbook written in Swedish, published in 1674. The results show that the choice of language for the terminology interact with different parts of the lawsuit. The parts of the lawsuit that is under greater international influence also have more Latin terms, while the descriptions of older areas (typically the trial participants) make more use of domestic terms.
Through this survey, we have started a new project at the intersection of lexicology and text genres, particularly regarding the early establishment of legal handbooks.
Publications
Lagspråk, lexikon och lexisering: en studie av språklig samverkan under 1700-talet. I: LexicoNordica 20. Nordisk forening for leksikografi S. 167–184.
http://gup.ub.gu.se/records/fulltext/189335/189335.pdf
Från dilation till uppskov. Var ordböcker viktiga i etableringen av ett juridiskt ordförråd? Nordiske studier i leksikografi 12. Rapport fra Konferanse om leksikografi i Norden. Oslo 13–16 august 2013. S. 385–401
http://gup.ub.gu.se/records/fulltext/218898/218898.pdf
Ett tidigt försök att etablera en svensk juridisk vokabulär? Lexikaliska och fackspråkliga perspektiv på en juridisk handbok från 1674. VAKKI Publications 4. Vaasa s. 199-208
Rajojen dynamiikkaa, Gränsernas dynamik,
Borders under Negotiation, Grenzen und ihre Dynamik. VAKKI-symposiumi XXXV 12.–13.2.2015.
ISBN: 978-952-67887-6-0
http://gup.ub.gu.se/records/fulltext/228082/228082.pdf
Språkhistoriskt korpusmaterial i lexikalisk forskning – ¬ möjligheter och utmaningarI: Svenska språkets historia 13 s. 183 – 197
Konferensvolymen är ännu inte publicerad. Förväntas under våren 2016.